


Wake

by threerings



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Episode s04e06: A Timeline and Place, Ficlet, M/M, Quentin's POV during the scene with The Monster, but also totally about queliot, no actual queliot I guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 14:17:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17962145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/threerings/pseuds/threerings
Summary: Quentin's POV during the confrontation with the Monster in 4x06.In which I try to process some of That.





	Wake

**Author's Note:**

> Preserving a Tumblr ficlet for posterity. Direct quotes and obviously heavy spoilers for 4x06. Warnings for...all those things in the scene.

Quentin gasped from the pain in his ribs where they’d hit the table. Terror raced along his veins from the ease with which the Monster had thrown him across the room. He pushed himself to his feet.

_You kill Eliot and you can forget about us helping you._

As the Monster stalked towards him, mocking him with Eliot’s name, Quentin felt sick, and hurt, and furious. Why didn’t matter anymore. Only one thing mattered. Eliot was in there. He reached for the only leverage he had.

_I will abandon you._  He saw that land, down in the part of the Monster that was like a child, the part that seemed to need him, want his friendship.

_I will die trying to burn you to the ground._  The only piece he had left in the Monster’s game was himself, the value it placed on him. So he took himself hostage. The terror, the desperation, the sheer panic when he’d heard Eliot’s body had almost died, it all surged up his spine and stiffened his resolve. He shook, but he would do everything in his power to stand between the Monster and Eliot.

And then It looked into his eyes, with Eliot’s eyes, and spoke with Eliot’s voice. _That’s cute…_  It could almost be Eliot, angry and threatening him. Something within him quailed. And the hands that went around his throat were Eliot’s. The hands that in another life had touched him everywhere, tenderly, now they threatened.

_Break my bones…strangle me…_  If this was it, the only chance to save Eliot…he bet it all. And he knew the Monster could see that deep in his eyes he meant it. He didn’t want to live in a world where the Monster existed and Eliot did not. The ache of seeing It behind his love’s eyes…everything that had happened…if this was the end he would take it.

_I’m too tired to care anymore._  He was. Tired, too tired to keep doing this. Sick of choking back his disgust every time he looked at It. Having his heart carved from his chest over and over again, when, for a brief instant, he thought he heard Eliot, saw him out of the corner of his eye, and then realizing the truth. He reached for that hopelessness and pulled it to the forefront, showing It how little he had left.

_You hurt him, you take one more pill, and you can build your body on your own.”_ The Monster’s hands tightened around his throat and he leaned in, daring him. Break your toy. Break me, and see where you are then. Quentin was out of patience, was out of the ability to pretend anymore, and this was his moment. The seconds stretched out and in each one he felt his death, but he saw the Monster waver. He saw its fear. 

And then it let go. Relief flooded him, along with triumph. He felt for a moment as if he could reach out and tear the Monster apart with his bare hands. It slunk away, defeated.

The fury melted from him. Fear, despair, determination in its wake.


End file.
